It was a GREAT birthday.

I had a great birthday yesterday (June 26th). My boss got a delicious birthday cake, my favorite kind, white cake with fruit filling, and we had a little party in the afternoon. Semil gave me a birthday phone call while I was at work, I thought that was nice.

I came home, and Stephanie, Shana, and Christy took me miniature golfing at Muligans Golf Course. We went to IHOP afterwards. I ran into Alberta Fualima'a I haven't seen her in years. She has four kids now. Wow. Stephanie gave me some stuff to pamper myself. Now I can give myself a pedicure.

I came home and saw that Ann Christensen had brought me a card and a big back of miniature candy bars. I stuck them in the freezer, we'll see how long they last in my home. My mother loves sweets. Charity loves Twix. I froze them, so that they might last a while.

Today after going to the Salt Lake Temple, I went over to my uncle's office to see if there was some work to be done. My Aunt Kathy had decorated my desk. She gave me a music cd of Paul Cardall's music, and some wheat crackers (I love to snack on wheat crackers), and a big bag of yummy peanut m&m's. My Aunt Kathy is the best.

Today is the anniversary of the martyrdom of Joseph Smith, Jr. I always remember, especially because it's the day after my birthday. I bear testimony that the Holy Spirit has witnessed to me that Joseph Smith, Jr. was called by God to usher in the Gospel of Jesus Christ in this last dispensation. I know that God the Father, and the Son, appeared to Joseph in that sacred grove in New York. The Priesthood keys have been passed down from him, through all of the latter-day prophets, to our current prophet, Thomas S. Monson. I know that Thomas S. Monson is a prophet.

Tomorrow I have a Platt family reunion. I'm excited, because I'm renting a sno cone machine, for the occassion. We're meeting up at Washington Park by Mountain Dell Golf Course. I hope the sno cone machine works well.

Primary Election and OHPAA Cultural Arts Festival

I served as an Election Judge in Salt Lake County today. I worked the polling location at Scott Matheson Jr. High School. I served as the Ballot Judge. Today was a closed primary election. The only party involved was the Republican party. We didn't have any non-partisan items on the ballots in our polling location today. Out of all the eligible voters in the districts, my co-workers figured that we had about a 10% voter turnout. The eligible voters are those who already affiliated themselves with the Republican Party, or those who were unaffiliated, but could chose to affiliate today before voting.

I'm not sure if 10% is really that good. It seems to me that many are neglecting their privlidges of being able to vote. What does that mean?

I got to work with some nice people. Our Poll Manager was Sonya Kingley. Jack Weiss served as the Provisional Judge. Rick Brewster was the Touch Screen Technician. Sedley Parkinson served as the Poll Book Judge and Norm Fitzgerald served as the Receiving Judge. Because I was the Ballot Judge I sat at the table with Norm Fitgerald and Sedley Parkinson. I had quite the experience. Norm and Sedley are so knowledgable. I learned all kinds of stuff today. My mom was so kind to bring Pizza to us from Dominos. I just love her.

Norm used to run the Copper Days Celebration in Magna. I'm on a committee putting together the OHPAA Cultural Arts Festival which is an attempt to accomplish the same vision that Copper Days had. After all my research lately, I already felt kind of overwhelmed by all the red tape I discovered exhists out there, speaking today with Norman didn't help alleviate any of my anxieties. I understand there needs to be responsiblity and justice, but I sometimes wonder if things have gone too far. I've heard that I live in a society overrun with law suits. Every agency, organization, and corporation has to be on constant guard, therefore flexiblity and freedom are being surpressed. I don't know how any festival or community event ever happens. There are so many permits, and their associated fees required to allow such an event to even be considered, it's all so overwhelming and a bit discouraging for me. We're just a few simple citizens with only our hands, our time, and minimul financial resources to offer. We want to do something nice for our community, but what we have to offer may not be enough. I hope things work out.

I got get out of this frame of mind. I need to remember to be positive and optimistic. There is lots of good in the world today. We have a lot to be thankful for.

Maizy has a Birthday

My neice Maizy turned another year older today. We had a princess party. (This photo of her was taken a while back. Zeke dressed Maizy up in her dressup clothes. She wasn't actually dressed like a princess for the party today.) It was a lot of fun. We sang some Karaoke with Charity's new machine. I got a Disney Princess Karaoke CD for Charity's new machine, in honor of the party. I saw my nephews singing away on the microphones for the first time. I used to try to get them to sing when they were younger. They never did. Tonight they sure were belting it out. It was fun. Zeke is just learning to read, so his skills aren't quite developed to read along with Karaoke. He just sang some other songs from school, and some he made up. He's got this new song "Driving with the Kids not Buckled." Sometimes it worries his parents that people will think they don't buckle their children up, which is not the case. Zeke just makes up funny songs.

Maizy loves her new princess scooter. Her brothers have Spiderman scooters, now she doesn't feel so left out.

Tomorrow my mom and I are taking the kids to see "Big Bad Musical" at the Empress Theatre. I think Oscar is really excited, because he heard that Jaret Bryce is in the show. The Bryce's used to live in my neighborhood, then they built a house by Pleasant Green. My sister's family bought a house up the street from them a few years ago. Oscar and Jaret's little brother, Ryan have been friends. I hear Zeke is playing with Ryan more lately too. I guess the other day, Crystal looked out the window and saw all three of them jumping off of her storage shed. She wasn't too happy about that. I have to admit, it does sound fun. I used to love to do things like that as a kid. I was definitely into doing crazy stunts, nothing real dangerous, just fun.

I'm excited to see the musical. The plot sounds like lots of fun. I'm wondering if it will be anything like "Hoodwinked." I liked that movie, I thought it was very clever.

Charity Sings Karaoke

Charity got her new Karaoke Machine today. Our birthdays are coming up. She got the Karaoke Machine for her birthday. She's turning 21 this year.

She's sure having fun singing along with the complementary disc that came with the machine. I'm enjoying listening to her. It brings a smile to my face. Usually Charity would still be at the Magna Times tonight putting the paper together, but this week it was a short paper, so she beat me home.

I had kind of a rough day at work today. I'm sure thankful for my family to help cheer me up.

Family is AWESOME. The family is the fundamental unit of society. Strengthen the Family.

Wow...that's awesome!

I just learned how to add some music to my blog. I'm so excited. I always enjoy listening to music when I read the Empress Theatre blog. I just viewed Anna Heywood's blog to see her aprons. She had music on hers too. I am so excited I got to put some of the music from their blogs onto my blog. It just makes it nicer. Both of the blogs have awesome music too, so I got some cool music.

It's Fathers' Day today. I read what Anna had to say about her mom on Mothers' Day, and it made me cry. I think moms are awesome. I think families are awesome. Today, especially, I think dads are awesome.

I love my dad so much. He has taught me all a good father should teach their children (I might have some bias). He's always loved my mother, and taught his children to love and respect her too. He takes care of our family. He prays for our family. He just makes me feel good and safe and secure. I don't know if I'll ever be able to find someone to be my husband who would love and take care of me as much as my dad does my mother. I've seen how other women's husbands treat them, and in some cases, been shocked. I know my father is one of the good men of the earth. My dad would really like me to find one of the good men of the earth. I hope my dad gets his wish.

I'm feeling kind of bad, because I don't think I've got the words in me to do justice to my dad. I'm not really sure how to express my love for him. I think I am guilty of taking my family relationships for granted. I don't want to. I know that all will be resurrected because of the love of our Savior Jesus Christ and His Atonement. Families can be together forever. With this knowledge, I still have a hard time of thinking of losing any of my family though. I want to be smart and find joy in our journey together now.

Happy Fathers' Day Dad. I love you.